Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and globally.

One of the beautiful aspects of esports is it is not tied to a single location where play needs to occur. In my professional role with my school district, I oversee the virtual learning program. We have students working remotely all over the state. Many are working from home (for a variety of reasons). Through esports, we can provide an opportunity for students to participate in an extra curricular activity that provides adult mentorship, and it provides an outlet of play in a pro-social way.

But for our students in a traditional learning environment, the connections can be made with peers outside their social circle. And while the Internet allows for the ease of these connections, in my own esports program, we used a space that brought teams from three different high schools together from around the city.

By bringing students together in a shared space, we found there was a new culture that grew from the collaboration of students from other schools. New social circles formed. We even had students switch schools when a less popular game was not played by the students in their school. So, while the rent paid to a local gaming lounge was seen as fiscally responsible as we grow our esports program (we will have five esports teams in the city of Racine in fall 2019), the additional benefit was the tremendous student collaboration that occurred. This collaboration resulted in shared ideas, coaching, analysis, and roles between schools.